Former Jamul resident Winnie Perry Whitby III was sentenced May 20, 2019 to 16 years to life in prison for killing his wife who was found stabbed to death and found dead along a hiking path on Skyline Truck Trail in Jamul on Jan. 7, 2017.
El Cajon Superior Court Judge Daniel Lamborn ordered Whitby, 49, to pay several thousand dollars for funeral expenses for Melissa Whitby, 49.
Winnie Whitby told the judge he did not kill his wife. A jury convicted Whitby of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of his wife.
Deputy District Attorney Jessica Paugh said Whitby was sentenced to 15 years to life for murder plus one year for the use of a knife in the crime.
Melissa Whitby was a nurse and she failed to show up for work on Dec. 30, 2016. Her co-workers couldn’t reach her and a sheriff’s deputy did a welfare check on her at the Jamul home.
Winnie Whitby told the deputy his wife had disappeared and he didn’t know where she was. A friend of his testified he told her about an argument they had while on a hiking trail.
He was charged with murder following a long investigation and was extradited from from Goldsboro, Maryland, after his arrest in October 2018. He received credit for seven months spent in jail.
Proceedings suspended over mental competency
Criminal proceedings have been suspended for an Alpine man accused of killing his girlfriend, Melanie Benitez, after his attorney said he might not be able to understand court proceedings.
A mental competency hearing is set for July 29 for Paul Paraschak, 43, in San Diego Superior Court. Paraschak will be given a mental evaluation in jail by a psychiatrist, who will write a report and send it to the judge.
If he is found mentally competent, new hearings will be set, but if not, he would likely go to a state psychiatric facility for treatment.
Benitez, 27, was found shot to death Feb. 23 outside a white car that was parked in the driveway of a home in the 2800 block of Victoria Drive in Alpine.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Paraschak as he was walking away from the scene and they found he was in possession of two firearms.
White collar criminal pleads guilty
A 70-year-old El Cajon man will be sentenced July 12 after pleading guilty to a multi-million immigration fraud scheme that tricked people when he posed as an officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Hardev Panesar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, four counts of false impersonation of a federal officer and an illegal structuring financing transaction.
Panesar also pleaded guilty to failing to appear in federal court after posting $100,000 bond and escaping to Mexico. He was also known under the name of Hardev Singh.
Panesar pretended to be an officer with the Department of Homeland Security. He claimed he had the power to stop deportation proceedings and showed fake credentials. He demanded more money to speed up the process, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Almost all of the victims were migrants and he claimed he could give them immigration documents. Panesar took fingerprints from people, saying it was needed for immigration processing, but he had no authority to do that.
The scheme took place from 2012 to May 24, 2017.
Panesar had pleaded not guilty but disappeared on June 21, 2018 before a hearing on his case. He was found in Mexico on Aug. 13, 2018, and arrested.
He has agreed to pay approximately $2.5 million in restitution to the victims. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison. S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel accepted his guilty pleas and will sentence him.
A co-defendant, Rafael Hastie, 48, of Tijuana, was sentenced by Curiel on Jan. 4 to 46 months in federal prison. Curiel ordered him to pay $942,310 to the victims. Hastie pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Panesar remains in federal custody without bail.
